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Review: Greek Dance

Author(s): Françoise CarterSource: The Classical Review, New Series, Vol. 49, No. 1 (1999), pp. 189-190Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/713951 .

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THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 189

GREEK DANCE

F. G. NAEREBOUT: Attractive Performances. Ancient Greek Dance:

Three Preliminary Studies. Pp. xix + 451. Amsterdam: J. C. Gieben,

1997. Cased, Hrl. 160. ISBN: 90-5063-307-2.

Despitethewell-documentedmportance f dance nancientGreece,most studiesofancientGreekculturehardlymentiondanceat all. Furthermore,laimsNaerebout,thespecialist tudyof ancientGreekdance s at a deadend.Thiswide-rangingtudyseeksto redress he balanceby proposinga researchmodel to set scholarson a newcourse.Thework s divided ntothreepreliminaryndinterrelatedtudies.

The firstpart s a historiographyf theworkalreadydonesinceA.D.600up to the

present.This includes not

onlyhistorieswrittenabout ancientGreek

dance,but

examplesof how attemptsto reconstructor capture he spiritof the dancehaveinfluencedthe developmentof Western heatricaldance.Landmarksncludethe

sixteenth-centuryttempt o recreateGreekchoraldancewhich ed to the develop-ment of ballet, opera, and, N. shouldadd, the Englishcourtmasque.Interest nGraeco-Roman antomimeed to the eighteenth-centuryalletd'action,balletthat

incorporatesmime gesturesto tell a story;IsadoraDuncan'sattemptto recreateancient Greek dance in reactionto classical ballet techniquewas an importantcontribution o the emergenceof modern dance.However, ince the 1930s a gaphas opened up betweenscholarsand the theatre.LillianLawler'snvaluablework

(1939-64)brought hestudyof ancientGreekdance nto themainstream f classicalscholarship,but since the 1940s there has been increasingspecializationand

fragmentation.Thesecondpart s a criticaloverview f textsand magesas sources or thestudyof

ancientGreekdance.There s a huge problemn moving romstatic ext or image omovement;a pictureonly has worthas a historicaldocument f accompaniedbywordsof interpretation.roma formalpointof viewGreekdance s a lost artand willremain o as long as there s no newandradically ifferent vidence.Apartfromthe

second-centuryreatisePeriOrcheseos ttributedo Lucian, here s no otherworkextantdealingexclusivelywithancientGreekdancing.No technical reatisedealing

withdance s atpresentknown o have urvived.Nor, t seems,do anysources efer oa notation system or to any work providinga technicaldescriptionof dancemovements r choreographies. ancewashandeddownexclusively yoraltradition;it is thus highly unlikely hat actualdancescould havebeen preserved nchangeddownthe centuries.

Greekpaintedpottery s themostimportant ourceof dance magery, ut weneedtobe sure hattheartisanntendedo portraydance.N. proposesa workingdefinitionof danceto decidewhetheran imagedepictsdanceor not, andwe need to take intoaccountdistortions ndrestrictionsmposedbythemedium.Textsandimages houldbecollected ystematically ycategory, earingnmind hatno static magecanassist

inrecreating singlemovementf thatmovement s not knownbeforehand. cholarsneed to focus not on howthe ancientGreeksdancedbut on the questionof 'whatdancewas all about'(p. 273).Forthis,freshsourcecriticism nda modelfor futureresearchs required.

Partthreeprovidesa theoretical rameworkor the studyof dancingat publicevents in ancient Greece. The model is made up of four buildingblocks: dance

(followingN.'sdefinitionof whatconstitutesdance);dance as a constituentpartofpublicperformances;hemobilization f the audience performancesave o attract

? OxfordUniversityPress, 1999

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19090 THE CLASSICAL REVIEWHE CLASSICAL REVIEW

the public);and communication.Public events containmultimedialperformanceswhichprovide n effectivemeansof communicating. ancingplaysanimportant artin theseperformancesecauseof its non-verbal ature,but dancehasmeaningonly

within a specific cultural context, as part of an event. Because almost everyperformances multimedialhere s usuallya verbal ext,andsince theactualdancemovements f ancientGreecearehardlyknownat all,we should ocus on theverbalsourcesof informationnorder o investigatehespecificways n whichmessageswerecommunicated. s N. recognizes,herearemanywho considerdance o be a mediumof communicationn its own right,whetherby means of structuralor expressivequalities,as a celebration f enhanced itality,and so on. Nevertheless,hewaythat

signs are decoded is culture-specific nd contextual,so that a rigorous analysis,categorization,ndtypologyof sources an shedfurtherighton whatdanceactuallymeant orthe ancientGreeks.

This book is well documentedwith a Greekvocabulary f the dance,althoughthereare a numberof typos(including p.86, 206,212 n. 478,227 n. 521, 249, 267,321, 350, 352,347).There s also a frequentuse of exclamationmarks hatdetractsfromscholarlydiscourse.n thesectionon iconography,on-specialisteaderswould

appreciate llustrations howing,for example, he artisticconventions hat differ-entiated athletic from dance movement.A specificexample demonstrating he

application f the modelwould havebeen welcomebut,N. tellsus, this will havetowait for futurepublications.N. regrets hatspecialist tudieson danceproducedbyclassical cholarsarereadonlybyotherclassical cholars.That sdisputable, utsincehis own work is of interest o a widereadership, nglish ranslations f quotationsshouldbegiven.

Thisbookprovides usefuloverview f avastsubject, ringingogetherworkdone

by dancers,dance historians,and classicalspecialists. t highlights he pervasiveinfluenceof ancientGreekdanceon thedevelopment f Western heatrical ance,aswell as theproblemsbesettingattemptso reconstruct ctualGreekdances. t is to be

hopedthat N.'s theoreticalrameworkorfutureresearchwillshedmore ighton the

importanceof dance as a mobilizingand communicating gentin ancient Greek

society.

EhimeUniversity,apan FRAN7OISE CARTER

NON-ELITE GREEKS

A. POWELL (ed.): The Greek World. Pp. xiv + 622, ills. London and

New York: Routledge, 1997. Paper, ?30. ISBN: 0-415-17042-7.

Despite its succinct title, this book is not just a voluminousand conventionalintroductionto the subject, but rather an experiment: n twenty-sevenpapers,subdividednto foursections, he editorprovides a demonstration f someof the

most influentialnew approachesused by analystsof Greekhistory'.The focus isdecidedlynot on historyfroman upper-class erspective.Of course,the choiceofcontributorsmpliesa certainpre-selection, ndconsequentlyt is hardly urprisingthat some approaches, speciallyoutside the Anglo-Americancholarlyworld,arenot found.Nonetheless, ne is confrontedwitha stimulating anorama, venthoughone might at times wonder what exactly is supposedto be new about certain

approaches. hevolumehas a goodindexand eachessayhas its ownbibliography.The firstsection, TheGreekMajority', efers o non-aristocratsnd,so to speak,

? OxfordUniversityPress, 1999

the public);and communication.Public events containmultimedialperformanceswhichprovide n effectivemeansof communicating. ancingplaysanimportant artin theseperformancesecauseof its non-verbal ature,but dancehasmeaningonly

within a specific cultural context, as part of an event. Because almost everyperformances multimedialhere s usuallya verbal ext,andsince theactualdancemovements f ancientGreecearehardlyknownat all,we should ocus on theverbalsourcesof informationnorder o investigatehespecificways n whichmessageswerecommunicated. s N. recognizes,herearemanywho considerdance o be a mediumof communicationn its own right,whetherby means of structuralor expressivequalities,as a celebration f enhanced itality,and so on. Nevertheless,hewaythat

signs are decoded is culture-specific nd contextual,so that a rigorous analysis,categorization,ndtypologyof sources an shedfurtherighton whatdanceactuallymeant orthe ancientGreeks.

This book is well documentedwith a Greekvocabulary f the dance,althoughthereare a numberof typos(including p.86, 206,212 n. 478,227 n. 521, 249, 267,321, 350, 352,347).There s also a frequentuse of exclamationmarks hatdetractsfromscholarlydiscourse.n thesectionon iconography,on-specialisteaderswould

appreciate llustrations howing,for example, he artisticconventions hat differ-entiated athletic from dance movement.A specificexample demonstrating he

application f the modelwould havebeen welcomebut,N. tellsus, this will havetowait for futurepublications.N. regrets hatspecialist tudieson danceproducedbyclassical cholarsarereadonlybyotherclassical cholars.That sdisputable, utsincehis own work is of interest o a widereadership, nglish ranslations f quotationsshouldbegiven.

Thisbookprovides usefuloverview f avastsubject, ringingogetherworkdone

by dancers,dance historians,and classicalspecialists. t highlights he pervasiveinfluenceof ancientGreekdanceon thedevelopment f Western heatrical ance,aswell as theproblemsbesettingattemptso reconstruct ctualGreekdances. t is to be

hopedthat N.'s theoreticalrameworkorfutureresearchwillshedmore ighton the

importanceof dance as a mobilizingand communicating gentin ancient Greek

society.

EhimeUniversity,apan FRAN7OISE CARTER

NON-ELITE GREEKS

A. POWELL (ed.): The Greek World. Pp. xiv + 622, ills. London and

New York: Routledge, 1997. Paper, ?30. ISBN: 0-415-17042-7.

Despite its succinct title, this book is not just a voluminousand conventionalintroductionto the subject, but rather an experiment: n twenty-sevenpapers,subdividednto foursections, he editorprovides a demonstration f someof the

most influentialnew approachesused by analystsof Greekhistory'.The focus isdecidedlynot on historyfroman upper-class erspective.Of course,the choiceofcontributorsmpliesa certainpre-selection, ndconsequentlyt is hardly urprisingthat some approaches, speciallyoutside the Anglo-Americancholarlyworld,arenot found.Nonetheless, ne is confrontedwitha stimulating anorama, venthoughone might at times wonder what exactly is supposedto be new about certain

approaches. hevolumehas a goodindexand eachessayhas its ownbibliography.The firstsection, TheGreekMajority', efers o non-aristocratsnd,so to speak,

? OxfordUniversityPress, 1999